


Traveller in the Dark

by fannishliss



Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU, Apocalypse averted, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-14
Updated: 2013-10-14
Packaged: 2017-12-28 17:49:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/994788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fannishliss/pseuds/fannishliss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anna escapes from Heaven to try and save the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Traveller in the Dark

**Title: Traveller in the Dark**  
**Author:** [](http://fannishliss.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://fannishliss.livejournal.com/)**fannishliss**    
**Rating:** PG  
**Genre/pairing:** Gen  
**Characters:** Anna, Castiel, others  
**Word count:** 1800  
**Spoilers:** 5.13  
**Warnings:** none  
**Disclaimer:** This is a work of transformative fiction, not for profit.  
Huge thanks go to my hard-working and cheerful betas, [](http://andreth47.livejournal.com/profile)[**andreth47**](http://andreth47.livejournal.com/)   and [](http://somnolentblue.livejournal.com/profile)[**somnolentblue**](http://somnolentblue.livejournal.com/) .  HUGS!

 **Summary:** **Anna escapes from Heaven to try and save the world.**  
  
~o~

There is light so brilliant, so piercing, that the whitest, bluest lightning ever seen on Earth seems like a flickering candle in the darkness. There is song so eternal, so pervasive, that it traces the rotations of galaxies as they spin ever outward from the center of the universe.

Pierced by this light and dissonant to this song hung one insignificant creature, too in love with God's magnificent creation.

Michael regarded the creature with a judging, pitying glare.

"I can almost understand," Michael said, "why you felt so daring after our Father's departure. Many of us felt a lack of purpose, but none of the others fell. We are very disappointed in you, Anael."

Anna writhed beneath the archangel's regard. His pity was acid, etching correction over all her mistakes. Michael's judgments twisted her in traction, ratcheting Anna out of the shape she'd grown into, fracturing the most unique parts of herself to be splinted and reset as Heaven and Michael saw fit.

Anna tried to shine, to sing, but her glimmer was dimmed by the form she still clung to. Her song had become the croaking of a voice, a human voice among choirs of starshine, and humanity was beloved by no one in Heaven these days, it seemed, but herself.

Anna remembered the years upon years she had stood, invisible, watching them, until the yearning to feel as they felt, to live as they lived, one moment to the next, overcame her. She had ripped out her grace and fallen, into the womb of a woman she had loved as a mother -- the only mother she'd ever known -- and she'd also known the only father she'd loved without fearing.

Michael directed his attentions again to Anna, still painfully clinging to all she'd become as a human -- engraced -- abomination. The light and the song swelled around her, drowning out all she would proffer (unworthily, sinfully) to Heaven.

"You have nothing to gain by retaining that form, Anael," Michael said. "It is only confusing you, clouding your judgment. The time of humanity is passing, making way for Armageddon and our inevitable victory. Yield now, Anael, and rejoin us."

Even though she suffered, Anna simply could not give up all she'd learned, all she'd become amongst humans, especially not when Michael's plan threatened their annihilation. So she hung there, desperate, through timeless aeons, trapped in the body she'd longed for, till Michael looked away, and in that moment, once again, the Angel of Love slipped, wounded, back to Earth.

~o~

Anna had never wandered into Dean Winchester's dreams before, though she knew her brother Castiel liked it there. Anna remembered Dean with fondness and respect, his strength, his determination against all odds, his willingness to put himself between someone he barely knew and a deadly, powerful threat; she remembered, too, Dean's sweet lovemaking, the flipside of his talent for torturing before Castiel reclaimed him. She had seen how deeply he repented the violence he'd relished as a demon; it made him so gentle, completely focused on her pleasure, almost submissive in his intensity. That short time with Dean was a joy even the disdain of Archangels could never make her regret.

Now, Dean slumped in the brothel of his mind, staring at the cosmic dance of angels and demons rendered lurid and harmless as women undulating for his satisfaction. His mind was slack, hypnotized, as he imagined the rhythmic sway, the play of the overdetermined bodies, bedecked in their Frederick's finery.

Anna appeared out of place on the stage in her sensible garb, ringed by portraits of corseted torsos. Her sadness and pain were bone deep. She loved Dean, of course -- she was made of love -- but her stint on Heaven's rack had pared her down to just one goal: save the world. At any cost.

She could think of only one thing to do, and it meant that for Anna, Dean was lost.

~o~

As soon as Castiel showed up to meet her in the warehouse, Anna saw the love he bore for Dean inscribed deep in his Angelic nature. His pinions were electric with wariness, shooting the lights of the warehouse -- he was barely under control. He didn't trust her, and why should she be trustworthy? His had been the last friendly face she had seen when the watchdogs seized her, bearing her to Michael.

"If you try to harm Sam Winchester," he said, and Anna saw his Angelic fire shiver in love for Dean, brightening to suns, "I'll kill you."

As familiar as she was with the effect the Winchesters had on people -- even Angels like herself and Castiel -- she was still shocked when her brother denied their millennia of friendship to choose Sam Winchester over her -- the man whose hand he'd been leery of shaking; the man he'd betrayed to a horrible, heaven-wrought destiny.

If it hadn't been for Castiel playing his part so faithfully in Heaven's machinations, Anna wouldn't have needed to commit this terrible, terrible crime -- not just erasing the plans of Heaven before they've come to bear, but tearing the sublime beings Sam and Dean out of the very fabric of creation. If she succeeded, she would save the world -- but she would truly know herself as abomination.

That cheery thought to the forefront, she flung herself into the past.

~o~

It broke Anna's heart again -- how many times can one Angelic heart be broken? -- to meet Mary Winchester.

"I'm so sorry," she repeated, almost dragging herself forward, hating herself and her terrible plan, but at a loss to come up with anything else.

Anna struck at Mary, but she found herself pulling her blows. She wasn't going to be able to go through with this. Looking into Mary's face, she saw Dean's strength and dedication, Sam's sense of purpose and stubbornness. Mary was the wellspring of the love the Winchesters bore one another.

Mary's courage and strength made her more than beautiful; Anna was enthralled by her. Looking deep, she saw the stain of the woman's deal with the demon Azazel, which she expected; but she was shocked to see a cupid's mark on Mary's heart. Fury at Heaven boiled up inside Anna -- the machinations of both Heaven and Hell had doomed this Hunter and her attempt to build a life for herself and her family.

Where was God in all this? For the first time, Anna understood Michael's need to take action, and she saw how much it was like her own.

She knew she could not fight Sam and Dean; she loved them too much. This was the only plan that might spare them all the horrors they seemed predestined to face.

She needed a tool more violent, one with no regard for humans, and in 1978, there was still Uriel.

~o~

The house was not warded strongly enough to keep Anna and Uriel out. They simply dismantled the defenses of the Winchesters and strode in. Mary and John and Sam and Dean were all there. Anna could hardly move, weighed down by overwhelming guilt and reluctance. She fought weakly, hating herself, but still, the lives of these humans could not outweigh the whole of humanity.

When Michael appeared, Anna knew she was defeated. Would he send her back to Heaven, back to the rack?

His hands glowed hot as he seized her, flooding her Angelic self with the firestorm of an Archangel. She felt her grace flare out of control, destroying the body she'd fought for. Terror and rage filled her last thoughts as her essence exploded into nothingness.

~o~

She had done what she could, Anna thought, and something like surprise flowed up in her at the fact that she was still thinking.

Breathing, feeling.

She opened her eyes.

Castiel, the Angel of Solitude and Tears, smiled down at her, Jimmy Novak's blue eyes sparkling.

"Anna," he said, "I'm glad to see you. Our Father told me where to find you."

"Castiel," Anna breathed, amazed at the breath filling her lungs, the warm covers around her body. She sat up. She was in bed-- dressed in a long white flannel nightgown.

"Cas, what happened? Michael killed me! Is Sam... Dean...?" Anna flushed and looked away. "I'm sorry that I tried... I didn't know what else to do," she murmured.

"They are fine. It's all over." Castiel smiled at her again. Anna looked more closely. Inside him she could see his Angelic nature burning brighter than ever, full of Grace, his love for Dean strong and fierce.

"It's over?" Anna didn't understand. Where had she been? What had happened? Why was she still alive, and how did she even still exist in any form?

"Anna, my sister, it's too much to explain to you all at once. But know this: God is restored to Heaven. Sam and Dean and I put things right. And now, God has given you back to us. Our Father truly loves you, Anael."

"But... so many have died. It doesn't seem fair, that I'm alive ... " Anna was grateful, of course, but bewildered. She knew how many friends and loved ones the Winchesters had seen fall, and she had been the least of them.

"You are an Angel of the Lord, eternal, and your task is to glorify God forever. These humans -- their lives on Earth are brief -- they serve God in their own ways before they move on."

"I thought I might end up ... in Hell... " Anna whispered.

"There is no Hell any more. The Apocalypse is over, the demons released from their torment, and Lucifer restored to Heaven." Cas leaned in. "Dean said the timer rang on Lucifer's time-out."

Anna looked at Cas, aghast, as the cheerful Angel continued to smile.

"So our brothers and sisters who fell.... "

"Restored. Even Uriel. Even Azazel," Cas stage-whispered. "Uriel is still laughing about it. His smiting days are over, he says."

"Laughing? Uriel?" I killed him, Anna thought, with the blade of Lucifer.

"Yes! Of course! There is much rejoicing in Heaven, Anna, now that all is restored."

Anna looked deeper inside Cas, trying to see what all this meant. His devotion to God had never wavered, strong even when his grace had been starved, cut off from Heaven. His intense love for Dean flowed over and through him, making Anna wonder what they were to one another now; but Anna saw in Cas his love for Sam as well, and for his charges, the Novaks, and of course Castiel loved God's world and the humans who peopled it -- but there, what Anna still could not believe, was his love for her.

"Cas?" Anna said.

He understood her and smiled on her even more widely. His face was so beautiful, lit from within by his joy.

"Yes, Anna. You are here. God loves you. You are still his Angel. And now," Cas said dramatically, grinning, "we have work to do."


End file.
